STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3902
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 30, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BURKE -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to declaring Pulaski Day
a school holiday
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 8 of section 3604 of the education law, as
2 amended by chapter 359 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 8. No school shall be in session on a Saturday, the first day of the
5 second lunar month after the winter solstice in the preceding calendar
6 year known as Asian Lunar New Year, the last Friday in October known as
7 Pulaski Day, or a legal holiday, except general election day,
8 Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday, and except that driver
9 education classes may be conducted on a Saturday. A deficiency not
10 exceeding four days during any school year caused by teachers' attend-
11 ance upon conferences held by superintendents of schools of city school
12 districts or other school districts employing superintendents of schools
13 shall be excused by the commissioner, notwithstanding any provision of
14 law, rule or regulation to the contrary, a school district may elect to
15 schedule such conference days in the last two weeks of August, subject
16 to collective bargaining requirements pursuant to article fourteen of
17 the civil service law, and such days shall be counted towards the
18 required one hundred eighty days of session, provided however, that such
19 scheduling shall not alter the obligation of the school district to
20 provide transportation to students in non-public elementary and second-
21 ary schools or charter schools. At least two such conference days during
22 such school year shall be dedicated to staff attendance upon conferences
23 providing staff development relating to implementation of the new high
24 learning standards and assessments, as adopted by the board of regents.
25 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to the
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08075-01-5
A. 3902 2
1 contrary, school districts may elect to use one or more of such allow-
2 able conference days in units of not less than one hour each to provide
3 staff development activities relating to implementation of the new high
4 learning standards and assessments. A district making such election may
5 provide such staff development on any day during which sessions are
6 allowed and apply such units to satisfy a deficiency in the length of
7 one or more daily sessions of instruction for pupils as specified in
8 regulations of the commissioner. The commissioner shall assure that such
9 conference days include appropriate school violence prevention and
10 intervention training, and may require that up to one such conference
11 day be dedicated for such purpose.
12 § 2. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as sepa-
13 rately amended by chapters 359 and 629 of the laws of 2023, is amended
14 to read as follows:
15 2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
16 a population in excess of one million, shall prepare a public school
17 calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
18 portation has been requested not later than the first day of June in
19 each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in
20 the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
21 tation to nonpublic schools shall provide such transportation for the
22 same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
23 transportation services for more than one hundred eighty days. Offi-
24 cials of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by a
25 city school district of a city having a population in excess of one
26 million may notify such district, not later than the first day of July
27 of each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of Saturdays,
28 Sundays or legal holidays upon which public schools are required to be
29 closed, on which the public schools are scheduled to be closed, except
30 that in any year in which the first or last day of Passover and Easter
31 Sunday are separated by more than seven days, such officials may notify
32 the district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will be
33 required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
34 that such five or ten additional days, whichever is applicable, are
35 limited to the following: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
36 after Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the week in which public
37 schools are closed for spring recess, December twenty-fourth and the
38 week between Christmas day and New Year's day, the Tuesday, Wednesday,
39 Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's birthday, the
40 first day of the second lunar month after the winter solstice in the
41 preceding calendar year, known as Asian Lunar New Year, the fifteenth
42 day of the eighth month of the Indian calendar in each year, known as
43 Diwali, the last Friday in October known as Pulaski Day, and, in the
44 boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens only, Anniversary Day as designated in
45 section twenty-five hundred eighty-six of this chapter.
46 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
47 the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the
48 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
49 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
50 to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
